


the possibility of an unexpected goodbye

by PuriPuki



Series: blessed be the boys time can't capture [6]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Delusions, Gen, Illnesses, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 15:52:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8719723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuriPuki/pseuds/PuriPuki
Summary: It takes him two weeks to find a little village near an oasis. There’s only four or five families, alongside three clerics and a sage running the village. He learns their names, adjusts to the tempo of small town life, and becomes the Weird Science Man Who Came From The Sky.





	

Despite the dire times, Vaike and Miriel strived to provide their son a fairly normal childhood. Trips to the market with either parent, visits to the castle to let Laurent play with Lucina, and picnics every few weekends. Some things were harder, Laurent remembers.

 

His parents fought. A lot. Frequently. When he was seven, he was able to calculate that, on average, his parents fought three times a day. Most of the arguments were over trivial things, about Vaike’s sloppiness or Miriel’s uptight cleanliness. These often didn’t result in any permanent fallouts, but long cooling off periods. Vaike would storm out to cool his head, Miriel would set about cleaning any mess made, and Laurent would help her. He didn’t like seeing his parents argue, and helping his mother was the easiest way to show his love and support for her. 

 

One particularly nasty fight occurred on his eighth birthday. It was over something trivial, as usual, and Vaike had decided, “I’m going to the city for a while, I’ll be back later.” and left without another word. Laurent ate his small slice of cake. Miriel tucked herself away in the workshop.

 

His father didn’t come home that night. Miriel said not to worry. The next morning came with two young soldiers at their door, bearing a silver band and, “He sacrificed himself to save three young children. Your husband is a hero, ma’am.”

 

The funeral is a somber event. Laurent clings to his mother’s skirts, unused to the crowd that his father’s death has brung. Most were family friends, but the three mothers and their children were there, to give condolences and gifts of thanks - twenty bronze coins, a basket of bread, and a parcel of salted jerky.

 

“I appreciate your offer,” Miriel had said, swiping tears out of her eyes, “but I will have to decline. We will be quite alright. Thank you for your condolences.”

 

Miriel begins to sleep in her workshop after this, but still tucks him in at night with short war stories and a kiss to the forehead. Laurent begs and pleads with her to teach him magic until she gives in. At first, he struggles to comprehend the spells and simply pronounce the incantations. Miriel begins his training with conjuring small breezes, than larger ones, and then gusts large enough to sling at a makeshift dummy. Within the ten months until his ninth birthday, Laurent’s affinity for magic grows. Miriel will only let him use wind tomes for now, but he has certainly mastered it.

 

For his ninth birthday, he receives an elwind tome and permission to start using fire tomes.

 

In the next three years, Laurent perfects his skills. At twelve, he is able to use arcwind tomes, as well as elfire and elthunder. He would be ecstatic to show Lucina, a longtime companion, his skill by blowing a dummy in the training fields away, but, now is not the time, his mother had told him. He stands in the crowd, watching as a priest places a circlet of gold on Lucina’s head. Laurent knows that as Exalt, she won’t have anymore time for fun and games. He’s prepared to make the same sacrifice for his best friend, and enlists to be a part of her guard as soon as he can.

 

This, unfortunately, coincides with the death of his mother.

 

Lucina had sent the last of the Shepherds to Plegia in a desperate attempt to recover the Fire Emblem. It doesn’t work, despite her tactical brilliance. The other two children, Severa and Yarne, arrive at the castle gates shortly after.

 

Laurent stays in Ylisstol, living in the inner city with Gerome, who is in Ylisse for the first time in a decade. The wyvern rider is unused to the hustle and bustle of city life, having spent the past 5 years living in seclusion with the Feroxi khan, Flavia. They adjust well enough together, and move into the castle when Lissa dies.

 

Someone has to take the empty bedroom. Laurent sleeps in the drawing room.

 

Three years of training, fighting, and despair pass. Slowly, the city limits grow smaller, closer to the castle. There are so few of them left now. No one can be sure if there are any survivors in other nations - if there aren’t, there’s no one to send a letter of notice to what used to be Ylisse. They come up with a plan, to get back the gems and the Fire Emblem and go back in time, stop all of this horror and death from happening. He goes with Severa and Gerome to Plegia to take back the Emblem and Vert, trekking across the empty desert for days (Laurent is unaware of how familiar the sensation of sand in his shoes will become). They come back successful, fight one last night, and become the last twelve people alive.

 

Laurent lands in the desert. He thinks, maybe, he’s dreaming, but the sun is so hot and the sand is so coarse. In case there are any hostiles nearby, he keeps his elwind tome close to his chest and begins to walk in search of life. 

 

It takes him two weeks to find a little village near an oasis. There’s only four or five families, alongside three clerics and a sage running the village. He learns their names, adjusts to the tempo of small town life, and becomes the Weird Science Man Who Came From The Sky.

 

There’s the Clark family, Emma and Lars, and their two daughters Laura and Kara. Then, there’s the Nars family, Joseph and Maria and their son William, and Maria’s sister Anna. There’s also the Santeria family, the Nikols family, and the three sister clerics; Jay, Ezra, and Ophelia. The sage, Hannah, is their mother and runs the small settlement they simply call Oasis. Laurent fits in well, and joins Lars and Joseph on ventures to the oasis for water and fish.

 

He hates the taste of fish, always has, but resources are scarce. He takes what is given to him, because he knows that he’s making it harder to feed the children of the town. Laurent is grateful for them. He is sure to remember their names.

 

He spends a year in their good graces before he decides that he must do something in return. Laurent, as a scientist, decides to do some science. 

 

Using the methods his mother taught him, he is able to craft many things. With reeds from the waterfront, Laurent crafts baskets capable of holding water and grain, as well as sheets of light material to prevent sand from being overly-present inside the buildings. He even teaches William Nars a little bit of magic, like his mother had taught him. He helps them craft more aerodynamic weapons, and gets halfway through his research on how to make tomes last longer when something goes wrong.

 

The war with Plegia begins. The sage and her clerics must go. Laurent promises Hannah that he will take good care of her village while she is gone. He knows this is a heavy task, as it is not easy to run an entire community. 

 

Laurent likes to think that he knows quite a lot of things. Laurent doesn’t know about the growing horde of ruffians in the dunes. 

 

They slay the people of Oasis while he is seeking a new source of water. Almost all of the buildings are aflame when he returns, the pillagers having already moved on. William’s body is face down at the edge of town, his skull caved in and his leg burnt and bloody. His mother’s body isn’t that far behind his, and the sight sickens him.

 

Laurent has seen dead bodies before. It is nothing new, but these people were innocent. Victims of a senseless crime in peacetimes. The war ended three days ago, he knows, word came from Hannah - she and the sisters will be home soon.

 

He leaves the desert town behind him.

 

Some fifteen days later, he finds an abandoned shack and takes up residence there. Like the village he initially happened upon, there is a small oasis nearby. It’s enough to stay alive. That is all Laurent needs.

 

He’s been in his new house, if it can be called that, for a year - making it four since he’s been struggling to survive in the desert - when he falls ill. Sun Sickness, maybe, Laurent knows he was never as proficient in the medicines as he was in magic. He’s able to wet a cloth to put on his forehead, but that is all he can do.

 

He sees his mother. She presses a kiss to his forehead, frowns, and spoon feeds him soup. It’s a memory, but he’s too ill to realize. His father is there too, but he is distant, blurry and fading from view. “You’ll feel better soon, Laurent, I promise,” Miriel tells him. He wants to believe her, he does, but she left him alone, he nearly cries when her already blurry figure fades from view. His clothes are so rough. The sun is too warm. He wants to whine to his mother, he wants her to stay, to help him. He slips in and out of consciousness for the next three days until his fever breaks. 

 

Laurent thinks she’s a mirage at first. It wouldn’t be the first time that the desert has played a trick on him, but she’s real. The cadence of her voice and the blunt and intelligent tone has to be real. It has to be. Lucina helps him fight, which cements in the reality that  _ they came to look for him _ , and helps him adjust to living with people again.

 

“It looks like the desert’s been hard on you, are you sure you’re alright?” She asks, a gentle hand on his shoulder - they used to be the same height. It’s odd now, he thinks, that she’s shorter.

 

“I am quite alright, Lucina,” He assures her, “Thank you for your worries, but I will be fine.”

  
He lies. He has delusions, sometimes, where he thinks he’s still in the desert, that it’s just the desert tricking him into believing that his friends would come looking for him. But, just as he adjusted to life as an orphan, life in the desert, he will adjust to life with people again. Even though he will always be faced with the risk of unexpected departures, Laurent will be able to take everything in stride - even the end of the world.


End file.
